Toyota Racing Goes Hybrid Electric with the new TS040 for 2014 FIA

March 27, 2014
Paul Ricard, France – TOYOTA Racing revealed the new TS040 Hybrid electric car for the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship.

With 480PS of four-wheel-drive hybrid boost in addition to the 520PS 3.7litre engine, the TS040 HYBRID, launched today at Paul Ricard, has a maximum power of 1000PS and represents the most advanced hybrid technology in racing.

The new TOYOTA HYBRID System –
The new powertrain developed saves 25 percent on fuel in comparison to the 2013 model. Most of the savings was from an advanced engine, aerodynamics and driving style efficiencies.

Working together with official partner TOTAL, TOYOTA Racing’s engineers have found further efficiencies and performance through the use of specialist TOTAL lubricants. Yet, the major increase in hybrid power came from an AISIN AW motor-generator on the front axle plus the DENSO unit on the rear.

In addition there is heavy duty regenerative braking during deceleration or braking added to a NISSHINBO super-capacitor which during acceleration adds 480PS the motor/generator reverses and adds a 480PS power boost.

This car also comes with a V8 engine block that was designed, developed, manufactured, built and operated by TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (TMG) in Cologne.

They also worked on airflow around the car to reduce drag. This improves on fuel economy and helps increase the downforce. It seems that Toyota added on more of an aerodynamic-efficient design. Don’t forget the advanced composite plastics which makes a lighter weight vehicle; helpful for speed.

Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President: “We are very much looking forward to our third season in the FIA World Endurance Championship when we will fight to achieve our dream of winning Le Mans and the World Championship. As well as challenging new regulations which make endurance racing the most road-relevant discipline in top-level motorsport, we also have a new competitor. We are looking forward to competing with Porsche, as well as our more familiar rivals Audi. As a team we learnt a lot in our first two seasons in WEC and all this know-how has gone into our new TS040 HYBRID, which is the most technologically-advanced TOYOTA ever to compete on the track. We consider it very important that our racing programme contributes to TOYOTA’s wider activities and I am very proud that data, knowledge and technology pass regularly from our racing programme to our R&D colleagues, who are working to make great road cars of the future.”

Hisatake Murata, General Manager, Motor Sports Unit Development Division: “The TOYOTA HYBRID System – Racing has been significantly upgraded due to the challenge of new regulations. The regulations require a big reduction in fuel consumption but, to remain competitive, we of course want to retain engine power; it is not a realistic option to reduce consumption by reducing power. We looked at various possibilities but the most appropriate solution for us was to increase the displacement of the engine to improve heat efficiency whilst upgrading the hybrid system. We considered bigger hybrid capacity but settled on 6MJ as anything greater, using kinetic energy recovery, had a negative effect on lap time due to increased weight. To recover that amount of energy under braking, the rear motor-generator was not enough so we returned to the four-wheel hybrid concept we developed from 2007 to 2011, before the regulations limited hybrid boost to just one axle. With 1000PS we have achieved very impressive performance and kept the system within our weight targets. Now it’s time to see what it can do against the competition.”

Pascal Vasselon, Technical Director: “We started the initial studies and simulations immediately when the ACO announced the first elements of the regulations in mid-2012 and last season we devoted a lot of our available resources to developing the TS040 HYBRID. In terms of the aerodynamics and chassis concept, the TS040 HYBRID is a deep evolution of the TS030 HYBRID, taking into account the new dimensions as set by the regulations and implementing the lessons we learned in the last two years of WEC competition. New regulations always create a challenge and the obvious challenges for 2014 have been to change so many things at the same time, with significant regulation changes in terms of chassis and powertrain. The main challenge has been to create a more complex car with more hybrid hardware to achieve higher hybrid power and at the same time reduce significantly the weight due to a 45kg reduction in minimum weight. That has been a real headache but using lightweight materials and efficient design optimisation processes, we have achieved our targets.”